Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 1

ABBEY
of Glasgow) and Cardonald are ancient mansions ; while
Johnstone Castle, Ferguslie, Househill, Ralston, Barshaw,
and Egypt Park are all of modern erection. Twenty-
three proprietors hold each an annual value of £500 and
upwards, 82 of between £100 and £500, 135 of between
£50 and £100, and 263 of between £20 and £50. This
parish is in the presbytery of Paisley and synod of Glas-
gow and Ayr, and it contains the quoad sacra parishes
of Elderslie and Johnstone, with almost the whole of
Levern. The charge since 1641 has been collegiate ;
and there are two ministers, the first of whom has an
income of £621, and the second of £512. The parish
church is that of the ancient abbey, described under
Paisley, where, as also under Elderslie, Johnstone,
and Barrhead, other places of worship of various de-
nominations will be noticed. The landward school-
board consists of 9 members ; and 9 schools under it,
with total accommodation for 2294 children, had (1879)
an average attendance of 155S, and grants amounting to
£1394, 3s. 6d. Abbey parish has its own poor-law ad-
ministration, and possesses a poorhouse and a lunatic
asylum for itself, with respective accommodation for
555 and 9S inmates. It is traversed by reaches of the
Caledonian and of the Glasgow and South-Western rail-
way, and by the Johnstone and Glasgow Canal. Valua-
tion of lands and heritages (1881) £79,885, 12s. 6d.
Pop. of quoad sacra parish (1871) 17,489 ; of landward
district, 11,988. Pop. of civil parish (1801) 14,153, (1861)
29,6S7, (1871) 30,587, (1881) 34,392, of whom 17,470
were within the burgh. — Ord. Sur., sh. 30, 1866.
Abbey, a burn and a small headland in Rerwick parish,
Kirkcudbrightshire. The burn rises near Doon Hill, and
runs about 6 miles southward, past Dundrennan Abbey,
to the Solway Firth, at the small harbour of Burnfoot.
The headland flanks the W side of that harbour, 3J miles
E of the entrance of Kirkcudbright Bay.
Abbey, a hill in Abbey St Bathans parish, Berwick-
shire, 6 miles NNW of Dunse. It is one of the Lammer-
niuirs, has a length of about 2 miles, rises to an altitude
of 913 feet, and consists of two parts, called Inner and
Outer.
Abbey Bathans. See Abbey St Bathans.
Abbey Craig, an abrupt eminence in Logie parish,
Stirlingshire, on the N side of the Forth, 1J mile ENE
of Stirling. It rises from a plain of carboniferous rocks ;
consists at first of sandstones, shales, clay, ironstone,
and coarse limestone ; afterwards becomes a mass of
greenstone, similar to that of Stirling Castle and Craig -
forth Rocks ; and culminates at a height of 362 feet
above the level of the sea. Its limestone has drawn
some attention ; and its greenstone, in considerable
quantity, has been worked into excellent mill-stones.
Its form is picturesque ; its surface is largely clothed
with shrubbery, and traced with winding walks ; and
its summit commands a magnificent view of the basin of
the Forth. It bears marks of an entrenchment formed
by the Romans, and renewed by Cromwell ; it yielded,
about the year 1790, a number of bronze spear-heads ;
and it was the station of the victorious army of Sir
"William Wallace in the battle of Stirling, 11 Sept.
1297. A monument to Wallace now crowns a tabular
spot adjacent to a precipitous stoop at its W end. It was
founded 24 June 1861, but not completed till Sept.
1869, suffering interruption in its progress from defi-
ciency of funds, and eventually costing about £1S,000.
Designed by J. T. Roehead of Glasgow, it has the form of
a Scottish baronial tower, surmounted by an architectural
crown, measures 36 feet square at the base, and, rising
to the height of 220 feet from the ground, is more con-
spicuous than beautiful. The top may be gained, with-
out any fee, by a winding staircase, and commands a
noble bird's-ej'e view.
Abbeygreen, a small town in Lesmahagow parish,
Lanarkshire, on the left bank of the river Nethan, 3
furlongs W of Lesmahagow station, and 6 miles SW
of Lanark. Beautifully situated in a pleasant vale, it
takes its name from the priory of Lesmahagow, and is
itself often called Lesmahagow. It stands nearly in the
centre of that parish, and contains its post office, with
ABBEY WELL
money order, savings' bank, insurance, and telegraph
departments, under Lanark. There are besides branches
of the Royal Bank and British Linen Co. Bank, four
insurance offices, the parish church (1804), a Free and a
U. P. church. Two public schools, boys' and female in-
dustrial, with respective accommodation for 257 and 268
children, had (1879) an average attendance of 151 and
163, and grants of £52, 3s. 2d. and £165, 6s. 6d.
Business fairs are held on the second or the third Wed-
nesday in May and August, and on the first three
Wednesdays of December, and hiring-fairs on the second
Wednesday of March and October. Pop. (1S61) 1136,
(1871) 1448, (1881)1297.
Abbeyhill, an old suburb of Edinburgh, adjacent to the
N side of Holyrood gardens, and on the North British
railway at the deflection of the northern branch from the
main line, about 1 mile E of the centre of Edinburgh.
It consists chiefly of the old street, containing one or two
houses which may have been residences of the courtiers of
Holyrood ; and in 1732 it was the death-place of the
first Duchess of Gordon. The railway passes it partly on
viaducts and partly on embankments. The new thorough-
fare from Hol}Tood to Regent Road, formed for giving
better access to Edinburgh than by the old Canongate
route, is spanned by one of the viaducts. A station of
the name of Abbeyhill is on the northern branch of the
railway, in the northern neighbourhood of the old suburb,
adjacent to the new suburb on the line of London Road.
Abbey Land, the name borne by some houses in the
town of Turriff, Aberdeenshire, that mark the site of an
almshouse, founded in 1272 by Alexander Coniyn, Earl
of Buchan, and endowed in 1329 by King Robert Bruce.
It maintained a warden, 6 chaplains, and 13 poor hus-
bandmen of Buchan.
Abbey St Bathans, a hamlet and a parish in the Lam-
mermuir district of Berwickshire, took its name partly
from a Cistercian nunnery, party from Baithene, Columba's
cousin and successor at Iona. The hamlet lies in a pleasant
haugh on the river Whitadder, here spanned by a suspen-
sion bridge, and is ih miles WSW of Grants House
station, and 7 miles NNW of its post-town, Dunse. The
nunnery of St Mary was founded towards the close of the
12th century by Ada, Countess of Dunbar, was a cell of
South Berwick, and had an income of £47, but is now re-
presented only by the E and W walls of its chapel, which,
originally 58 by 26 feet, was greatly curtailed and modern-
ised about the end of last century. In its altered con-
dition it serves as the parish church, and contains 140
sittings. A school, with accommodation for 72 children,
had (1879) an average attendance of 62, and a grant of
£66, 12s.
The parish has an extreme length of nearly 6 miles
and a breadth of 4, but is broken up by Longformacns
and Cockburnspath into three sections of respectively
3045J, 1685, and 97i acres. The surface includes Abbey
Hill (913 feet), Bafnside Hill (865), the Camp (803),
and several other lower eminences, yet comprises a good
aggregate of fertile and well-cultivated lowland ; and
while the upper grounds are mostly bare or heathy, the
lower slopes are often finely wooded up to a consider-
able height. The prevailing rocks are Silurian, and a
copper-mine was opened in 1828, but soon abandoned.
The Whitaddek, winding from W to E, is here a beau-
tiful stream, over 30 feet wide, and here it receives the
Monynut Water and the Weir and Eller burns. All
abound in trout, and Moor Cottage is a favourite anglers'
haunt. Godscroft, on the Monynut, was the demesne of
David Hume (1560-1630), historian of the house of Angus;
while Abbey House is a modern erection, the property of
John Turnbull, Esq., who owns in the shire 4842 acres,
valued at £2526 per annum; and one other proprietor
holds an annual value of over £500, two hold each between
£100 and £500, and one holds less than £100. The
parish is in the presbytery of Dunse and synod of Merse
and Teviot ; its minister's income is £195. Valuation
(1881) £2634. Pop. (1801) 138, (1831) 122, (1871) 195,
(1SS1) 250.— Ord. Sur., sh. 33, 34, 1863-64.
Abbeytown. See Airth.
Abbey Well, a fountain a little to the E of the parish